Justene has graciously invited me to guestblog on her site. While that invitation came some time ago, I am only now finding a subject that I consider worthy of a first effort at her site. I hope the readership of Calblog agrees.
I had the good fortune to live in some far-flung corners of the globe, and was fortunate to have the opportunity to travel extensively when I was younger. Some of the places we lived, e.g. North Africa and Europe, combined with my religious upbringing (Judaism) made me more keenly aware of terrorism, I believe, than most of my mainland-USA peers at a much younger age. So it was probably inevitable that on the morning of 9/11 I saw clearly that there would need to be a response, by the West's most powerful nations, to the terrorist attacks here on American soil. I also knew that there would be a rift in our political spectrum that would be a major problem for our country. This is what has prompted me to write.
My father is a veteran of two wars: World War II, and the Israeli War of Independence in1948. I am fiercely proud of his involvement in both of these wars, but especially so of the latter. How many people, in this time, can lay claim to having been personally instrumental in the forging of a new nation?
I, on the other hand, by circumstance, (too young for Vietnam, too old for the rest) am a veteran of none. While he and I agree that Israel must take what action she deems necessary to protect herself and her citizens, we disagree vehemently on what the US should do about the problem of global terrorism.
As one who has seen war firsthand, my father opposes the war in Iraq for a variety of very valid reasons, not least the loss of American lives for an ungrateful populace. I can't argue this point with him, he is, in my opinion, spot-on in his assertion that we will never see democracy come to Iraq or Afghanistan. At the same time, I support a war on terrorism as a necessary response to the rise of global terrorism that has manifested itself in attacks on American soil at least four times.
And so father and son find themselves locked in a struggle that I think is a microcosm of what is occurring in this country today: Partisanship born of differing views on how to deal with a very real problem. I truly believe that we need to start looking at our similarities instead of our differences. As Americans we have a duty to try and protect our shores and promote and support democracy around the world. At the same time we need to be keenly aware of what that effort is doing to our own country via partisan politics. The future of America depends on it.